Application of Engineered Cementitious Composites Reinforced with Orthogonal Welded Steel Mesh in Enhancing Axial Performance of Reinforced Concrete Walls: Experimental and Numerical Analysis

Reinforced concrete (RC) walls are designed to carry vertical and horizontal loads which may need to be rehabilitated and strengthened to enhance their load-bearing capacity due to increased loading demands, environmental factors, or lateral forces. This study proposes strengthening RC walls using sustainable engineered cementitious composite (ECC) material reinforced with welded steel mesh (WSM). An experimental program was carried out on six RC walls strengthened using the proposed method to explore the effects of the thickness of the ECC layer, and the number of WSM on their axial performance. The ECC strengthening layer was reinforced with one, two, and three layers of WSM. The thicknesses of the ECC layer varied from 10 mm, 15 mm, and 20 mm. It was found that the proposed strengthening method significantly improved cracking control, elastic stiffness, energy absorption, failure modes, and ultimate load capacity. The strengthening technique improved the ultimate loading capacity between a range of 8% to 41%. Similarly, the energy absorption of the wall increases between a range of 60–175%. In addition, nonlinear finite element models were designed and validated against the experimental data. The validated model was used to perform a parametric study.